Sin City

Directed by Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller, Sin City (2005) has an opening sequence like most other Action films as it doesnt start with titles, so its put into the subgenre of action-thriller as there are reaconisable iconic conventions of a thriller used within the seductive opening.

It opens with an establishing extreme long shot of a black and white city skyline at night, with the ambiet sound of the cars below enhancing the sence of realism and contrasting with the private enviroment of the balcony in the foreground. The dull colour pallet is iconic to the genre as black, white and greys set a sinister mood and focuses the audiences attention elsewhere. The first character is introduced as a skinny woman elegantly walks centralised towards the balcony showing she is an important character and could be in danger as she is frail and is portrayed as vunerable as she's wearing a backless red dress, being the only colour this is a strong signifyer of love, warning, and blood. A mans overvoice empowers her position as he say "she shivers in the wind like the last leaf on a dying tree" being an indexical sign that she is the subject of death which is close to come, acompanied by the slow pace non-diagetic jazz saxaphone which could indicate they're attending a party while also setting a sad wollowing mood by making the scene flow smoothly. This slow pace is iconic to the thriller genre using few cuts to prolong the opening creating tension for the audience.

When the male character enters the shot out of the darkness adding to the suspision of his intensions, the woman is marginalised to the right showing she's less of an important subject. During convosation jump cuts are used between the close-up shots of the character half lit faces to create continuity while being close-up and personal. Rodriguez also used the common found effect of dull lighting so half of the characters faces are in shadows. This binary opposition of his face half in darkness shows he's pretending or lying and can be trusted, yet trust is established by the extreme close up shot of the lighter exaggerates the steriotypical circumstance of the man being in power as she accepts a ciggerette from him. Her face is also only half lit, signifying she is hiding or running from someone, these mysterious factors and cold lighting adds to the suspence of the film.

In the next scene the sinister mood is created by the reconisable use of bad weather as the ambient sound of thunder is reinforced by the rain being an indexical signifier that something bad is about to happen. The mid-shot is edited in silhouette to appear like a comic strip which is uncommon and takes away the realism of the kiss to show things aren't as the appear. Then the iconic weapon of a gun is introduced after he kisses the womans red lips adding to the conventions of the action thriller genre. A flash of white appears at the same time as the parallel sound of the gun shot to establish the mans change of character and her last breath.